I often draw in the street, lurking in doorways or sitting surreptitiously on benches in public spaces, scribbling away. Sometimes I take photos and work from them later. I took some from a second floor window and transferred the drawings to polycarbonate blocks, which I carved then printed. I like these figures from such an acute angle.

Share this:

Like this:

There’s often a temptation to keep doing something new, to keep chasing novelty, when you’re an artist. But really there’s nothing wrong with returning to the same subject or even the same drawing again and again to explore different ways of developing it.

I started this series with a very small ink drawing (bottom), then did a much larger drawing in graphite and finally a mixed-media piece in acrylic, graphite and oil-bars.

We here at FIRE lab held our first ‘What is Water’ event on 26 April at Copper Bar in Swansea. We created this event in part to start conversations about water, and to engage with different relationships that people in Swansea and surrounding communities have with water. Engaging with diverse relationships related to water, particularly fresh water, is a major focus of our work in FIRE Lab. This first event was made possible by funding from Swansea University’s College of Science—International Visitor Scheme, which also supported Dr. Emily O’Gorman’s visit and presentations on water cultures.

Dr. Emily O’Gorman presenting her research reflections on water cultures in Australia (Credit: Geraint Rhys).

Our focus for this event was on poetry and stories, drawing on a strong legacy and history of poetry and spoken word in Swansea. Over the last few months, Tara and Steph attended local poetry open mic nights and…

Share this:

Like this:

Husb and I went to an event this evening hosted by Urban Foundry about “We Make Good Happen” featuring its founder Matt Callanan who set up a kindness project to bring people together to do good for other people. He became well known for leaving ten pound notes in public with a note asking the finder to use the tenner to do some good. It’s become a very big movement in the UK. At the end of the session, some of us found a tenner taped to the underneath of our chairs, a tenner to be used to do some good. I was one of the lucky ones, but I’m not sure what to do with it. Any ideas gratefully received. Thanks 🙂

I sleep sandwiched between Husb on one side of me and Sparta Puss on the other, which is normally OK but last night they ganged up on me. Husb got up for a toilet visit at 4am and Sparta Puss decided to follow him, because like many cats she thinks it’s her duty to accompany her trained monkeys to the loo. She took the shortest route, which was across my chest and throat. She’s no lightweight. I’m a very light sleeper and they woke me up. Then they came back to bed and dozed off straight away. I lay tossing and turning until the alarm went off. This is my life!

Since we spent a week puppy-sitting the delightful Smudge, we’ve kept to the routine of walking in the morning before we start work. I did a quick scribble in my A6 sketchbook the other day, but only had time for a basic continuous line drawing. So I photographed it and uploaded it onto my Samsung Galaxy Tablet Note 8, into a free app called Markers, and then added in some tones and more line work to flesh the drawing out a bit. It’s a view from the top of Rose Hill, looking down over the city towards the sea. On the right in the distance are the twin islands of Mumbles. The name allegedly comes from French sailors who, when sailing by, spotted the islands and exclaimed “mamelles, mamelles” which translates as “breasts, breasts“.

Men in hats are hard to draw. Well, not just men, anyone really. I find heads easy enough until someone puts something on them – hats, scarves, bandanas …. even a pair of sunglasses makes it harder for me to get the proportions right. Good practice though. I scribbled these chaps at the charity boules event that Husb and I took part in yesterday. I was rubbish.

Boules. Played for the first time today at a charity event in Swansea Marina. Half of our team of six had never played before but we managed to get through to the quarter-finals. Of course, I had to have a quick scribble.